Can family socioeconomic resources account for racial and ethnic test score gaps?

This article considers whether the disparate socioeconomic circumstances of families in which white, black, and Hispanic children grow up account for the racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness among American preschoolers. It first reviews why family socioeconomic resources might matter for children's school readiness. The authors concentrate on four key components of parent socioeconomic status that are particularly relevant for children's well-being--income, education, family structure, and neighborhood conditions. They survey a range of relevant policies and programs that might help to close socioeconomic gaps, for example, by increasing family incomes or maternal educational attainment, strengthening families, and improving poor neighborhoods. Their survey of links between socioeconomic resources and test score gaps indicates that resource differences account for about half of the standard deviation-about 8 points on a test with a standard deviation of 15-of the differences. Yet, the policy implications of this are far from clear. They note that although policies are designed to improve aspects of "socioeconomic status" (for example, income, education, family structure), no policy improves "socioeconomic status" directly. Second, they caution that good policy is based on an understanding of causal relationships between family background and children outcomes, as well as cost-effectiveness. They conclude that boosting the family incomes of preschool children may be a promising intervention to reduce racial and ethnic school readiness gaps. However, given the lack of successful large-scale interventions, the authors suggest giving only a modest role to programs that address parents' socioeconomic resources. They suggest that policies that directly target children may be the most efficient way to narrow school readiness gaps.     

The contribution of parenting to ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness

The authors describe various parenting behaviors, such as nurturance, discipline, teaching, and language use, and explain how researchers measure them. They note racial and ethnic variations in several behaviors. Most striking are differences in language use. Black and Hispanic mothers talk less with their young children than do white mothers and are less likely to read to them daily. They also note some differences in harshness. When researchers measuring school readiness gaps control for parenting differences, the racial and ethnic gaps narrow by 25-50 percent. And it is possible to alter parenting behavior to improve readiness. The authors examine programs that serve poor families-and thus disproportionately serve minority families--and find that home- and center-based programs with a parenting component improve parental nurturance and discipline. Programs that target families with children with behavior problems improve parents' skills in dealing with such children. And certain family literacy programs improve parents' skills in talking with their children. Several interventions have significantly reduced gaps in the parenting behavior of black and white mothers. Not all improvements in parenting translate to improved school readiness. Home-based programs affect the mother but do not appear to affect the child, at least in the short term. But center-based programs with a parenting component enhance both parenting and school readiness. And some family literacy programs also improve readiness. Because these successful interventions serve a greater share of minority than nonminority families and have more positive effects for blacks than for whites, they offer promise for closing the ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness.     

Neuroscience perspectives on disparities in school readiness and cognitive achievement

This article allows readers to look at racial and ethnic disparities in school readiness from a neuroscience perspective. Although researchers have traditionally measured gaps in school readiness using broad achievement tests, they can now assess readiness in terms of more specific brain-based cognitive functions. Three neurocognitive systems--cognitive control, learning and memory, and reading--are essential for success in school. Thanks to recent advances in brain imaging, it is now possible to examine these three systems, each located in specific areas of the brain, by observing them in action as children engage in particular tasks. Socioeconomic status--already linked with how well children do on skills tests generally--is particularly closely linked with how well they perform on tasks involving these crucial neurocognitive systems. Moreover, children's life experiences can influence their neurocognitive development and lead to functional and anatomical changes in their brains. Noting that chronic stress or abuse in childhood can impair development of the brain region involved in learning and memory, the authors show how the extreme stress of being placed in an orphanage leads to abnormal brain development and decreased cognitive functioning. More optimistically, the authors explain that children's brains remain plastic and capable of growth and development. Targeted educational interventions thus have the promise of improving both brain function and behavior. Several such interventions, for example, both raise children's scores in tests of reading and increase activity in the brain regions most closely linked with reading. The brain regions most crucial for school readiness may prove quite responsive to effective therapeutic interventions-even making it possible to tailor particular interventions for individual children. The authors look ahead to the day when effective educational interventions can begin to close racial and socioeconomic gaps in readiness and achievement.     

Pediatric Primary Care and Partnerships Across Sectors to Promote Early Child Development

Poverty remains a critical predictor of children's school readiness, health and longer term outcomes. Early relational health (ERH) (ie, parenting practices and relationship quality) mediates the impact of poverty on child development, and thus has been the focus of many parenting interventions. Despite the documented efficacy of parenting interventions at reducing poverty-related disparities in child health and development, several key barriers prevent achieving population-level reach to families with young children. In the current paper we highlight several of these barriers including gaining population-level access to young children and families, reaching families only through single points of access, addressing the significant heterogeneity of risk that exists among families living in poverty, as well as addressing each of these barriers in combination. We suggest that understanding and confronting these barriers will allow family-centered interventions to more effectively address issues related to ERH at a population level, which in turn will reduce poverty-related disparities in child development.     

U.S. elementary and secondary schools: equalizing opportunity or replicating the status quo?

Although education pays off handsomely in the United States, children from low-income families attain less education than children from more advantaged families. In this article, Cecilia Elena Rouse and Lisa Barrow investigate why family background is so strongly linked to education. The authors show that family socioeconomic status affects such educational outcomes as test scores, grade retention, and high school graduation, and that educational attainment strongly affects adult earnings. They then go on to ask why children from more advantaged families get more or better schooling than those from less advantaged families. For low-income students, greater psychological costs, the cost of forgone income (continuing in school instead of getting a job), and borrowing costs all help to explain why these students attain less education than more privileged children. And these income-related differences in costs may themselves be driven by differences in access to quality schools. As a result, U.S. public schools tend to reinforce the transmission of low socioeconomic status from parents to children. Policy interventions aimed at improving school quality for children from disadvantaged families thus have the potential to increase social mobility. Despite the considerable political attention paid to increasing school accountability, as in the No Child Left Behind Act, along with charter schools and vouchers to help the children of poor families attend private school, to date the best evidence suggests that such programs will improve student achievement only modestly. Based on the best research evidence, smaller class sizes seem to be one promising avenue for improving school quality for disadvantaged students. High teacher quality is also likely to be important. However, advantaged families, by spending more money on education outside school, can and will partly undo policy attempts to equalize school quality for poor and nonpoor children.     

School readiness

School readiness includes the readiness of the individual child, the school's readiness for children, and the ability of the family and community to support optimal early child development. It is the responsibility of schools to be ready for all children at all levels of readiness. Children's readiness for kindergarten should become an outcome measure for community-based programs, rather than an exclusion criterion at the beginning of the formal educational experience. Our new knowledge of early brain and child development has revealed that modifiable factors in a child's early experience can greatly affect that child's learning trajectory. Many US children enter kindergarten with limitations in their social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development that might have been significantly diminished or eliminated through early identification of and attention to child and family needs. Pediatricians have a role in promoting school readiness for all children, beginning at birth, through their practices and advocacy. The American Academy of Pediatrics affords pediatricians many opportunities to promote the physical, social-emotional, and educational health of young children, with other advocacy groups. This technical report supports American Academy of Pediatrics policy statements "Quality Early Education and Child Care From Birth to Kindergarten" and "The Inappropriate Use of School 'Readiness' Tests."     

K-12 educational outcomes of immigrant youth

The children from immigrant families in the United States make up a historically diverse population, and they are demonstrating just as much diversity in their experiences in the K-12 educational system. Robert Crosnoe and Ruth López Turley summarize these K-12 patterns, paying special attention to differences in academic functioning across segments of the immigrant population defined by generational status, race and ethnicity, and national origin. A good deal of evidence points to an immigrant advantage in multiple indicators of academic progress, meaning that many youths from immigrant families outperform their peers in school. This apparent advantage is often referred to as the immigrant paradox, in that it occurs despite higher-than-average rates of social and economic disadvantages in this population as a whole. The immigrant paradox, however, is more pronounced among the children of Asian and African immigrants than other groups, and it is stronger for boys than for girls. Furthermore, evidence for the paradox is far more consistent in secondary school than in elementary school. Indeed, school readiness appears to be one area of potential risk for children from immigrant families, especially those of Mexican origin. For many groups, including those from Latin America, any evidence of the immigrant paradox usually emerges after researchers control for family socioeconomic circumstances and youths' English language skills. For others, including those from Asian countries, it is at least partially explained by the tendency for more socioeconomically advantaged residents of those regions to leave their home country for the United States. Bilingualism and strong family ties help to explain immigrant advantages in schooling; school, community, and other contextual disadvantages may suppress these advantages or lead to immigrant risks. Crosnoe and Turley also discuss several policy efforts targeting young people from immigrant families, especially those of Latin American origin. One is the DREAM Act, proposed federal legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented youth who meet certain criteria. Another effort includes culturally grounded programs to support the college preparation of immigrant adolescents and the educational involvement of immigrant parents of young children.     

Disadvantaged but different: variation among deprived communities in relation to child and family well-being

BACKGROUND: Disadvantaged communities are increasingly the target for interventions. Sure Start was launched in England in 1999 to tackle child poverty and improve child and family services, with Sure Start Local Programmes (SSLPs) targeted at relatively small areas of marked deprivation. However, they are located in a range of different types of communities where they may provide services to very different resident populations. They are all disadvantaged but underlying that label there are specific patterns of variability, relevant for service provision. To evaluate the implementation, impact, and cost-effectiveness of SSLPs, or other area-based initiatives, it is important to consider ways in which they can be grouped meaningfully according to these patterns. METHOD: Data were collected from administrative databases to describe SSLPs in terms of demography, deprivation, and aspects of child and family functioning and grouped using cluster analysis. RESULTS: Five different 'types' of SSLP community were identified, based on their socio-demographic and economic characteristics; typified by more, less or average deprivation in relation to all SSLPs, and in terms of the proportion of ethnic minority families resident in the areas. The groups differ in terms of community measures of child health, educational attainment, school disorder and child welfare and their prediction from demographic community characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: The groupings have implications for service delivery and the evaluation of area-based initiatives.     

Risk Factors for Persistent Child Poverty during the First Five Years of Life in Taiwan Birth Cohort Study

Little is known about the child poverty dynamics in Asian countries. This study aims to learn the extent of persistent child poverty and identify its risk factors in Taiwan. Data for the analysis came from the Taiwan Birth Cohort Study, a nationally representative sample of 18,506 children who were born in 2005. The researcher defined poverty as parental income below $30,000 New Taiwan Dollars (NTD) per month. We grouped children into three types of poverty based on their family’s history: persistent poverty, occasional poverty and never poverty. This study presents a multinomial logistic regression of the relationship between risk factors and poverty types. In Taiwan, 6.0% of the sampled children experienced persistent poverty in the first five years of life. Persistent child poverty was associated with families experiencing chronic unemployment, parents with low educational attainment, mothers having children before the age of twenty-five, foreign-born mothers, single-parent families and residence in rural areas. Of these factors, parental work status and the educational level of parents are the most important determinants of child poverty.     

Early childhood care and education: effects on ethnic and racial gaps in school readiness

The authors examine black, white, and Hispanic children's differing experiences in early childhood care and education and explore links between these experiences and racial and ethnic gaps in school readiness. Children who attend center care or preschool programs enter school more ready to learn, but both the share of children enrolled in these programs and the quality of care they receive differ by race and ethnicity. Black children are more likely to attend preschool than white children, but may experience lower-quality care. Hispanic children are much less likely than white children to attend preschool. The types of preschool that children attend also differ. Both black and Hispanic children are more likely than white children to attend Head Start. Public funding of early childhood care and education, particularly Head Start, is already reducing ethnic and racial gaps in preschool attendance. The authors consider whether further increases in enrollment and improvements in quality would reduce school readiness gaps. They conclude that incremental changes in enrollment or quality will do little to narrow gaps. But substantial increases in Hispanic and black children's enrollment in preschool, alone or in combination with increases in preschool quality, have the potential to decrease school readiness gaps. Boosting enrollment of Hispanic children may be especially beneficial given their current low rates of enrollment. Policies that target low-income families (who are more likely to be black or Hispanic) also look promising. For example, making preschool enrollment universal for three- and four- year-old children in poverty and increasing the quality of care could close up to 20 percent of the black-white school readiness gap and up to 36 percent of the Hispanic-white gap.     

Elevated child maltreatment rates in immigrant families and the role of socioeconomic differences

Are immigrant families at elevated risk for child maltreatment, and if so, what role do socioeconomic and family composition factors play? In a national prevalence study on child maltreatment in the Netherlands, child maltreatment cases were reported by 1,121 professionals from various occupational branches. Maltreating families were compared to a national representative family sample on immigrant status and parental educational level and family composition factors. The authors differentiated between traditional immigrant families who immigrated as labor migrants from Turkey, Morocco, Suriname, and the Antillean Islands, and nontraditional immigrant families who more recently immigrated from countries with severe economic hardships or political turmoil (refugees). Traditional immigrant and nontraditional immigrant families were both significantly overrepresented among maltreating families, but this overrepresentation disappeared for the traditional immigrants after correction for educational level of the parents. Nontraditional immigrant families, however, remained at increased risk for child maltreatment even after correction for educational level. It is proposed that interventions to prevent child maltreatment in immigrant families should focus on decreasing socioeconomic risks associated with low levels of education.     

Decreasing nonmarital births and strengthening marriage to reduce poverty

Since the 1970s, the share of U.S. children growing up in single-parent families has doubled, a trend that has disproportionately affected disadvantaged families. Paul Amato and Rebecca Maynard argue that reversing that trend would reduce poverty in the short-term and, perhaps more important, improve children's growth and development over the long term, thus reducing the likelihood that they would be poor when they grew up. The authors propose school and community programs to help prevent nonmarital births. They also propose to lower divorce rates by offering more educational programs to couples before and during marriage. Amato and Maynard recommend that all school systems offer health and sex education whose primary message is that parenthood is highly problematic for unmarried youth. They also recommend educating young people about methods to prevent unintended pregnancies. Ideally, the federal government would provide tested curriculum models that emphasize both abstinence and use of contraception. All youth should understand that unintended pregnancies are preventable and have enormous costs for the mother, the father, the child, and society. Strengthening marriage, argue the authors, is also potentially an effective strategy for fighting poverty. Researchers consistently find that premarital education improves marital quality and lowers the risk of divorce. About 40 percent of couples about to marry now participate in premarital education. Amato and Maynard recommend doubling that figure to 80 percent and making similar programs available for married couples. Increasing the number of couples receiving services could mean roughly 72,000 fewer divorces each year, or around 65,000 fewer children entering a single-parent family every year because of marital dissolution. After seven or eight years, half a million fewer children would have entered single-parent families through divorce. Efforts to decrease the share of children in single-parent households, say the authors, would almost certainly be cost effective in the long run and could reduce child poverty by 20 to 29 percent.     

The living arrangements of children of immigrants

Children of immigrants are a rapidly growing part of the U.S. child population. Their health, development, educational attainment, and social and economic integration into the nation's life will play a defining role in the nation's future. Nancy Landale, Kevin Thomas, and Jennifer Van Hook explore the challenges facing immigrant families as they adapt to the United States, as well as their many strengths, most notably high levels of marriage and family commitment. The authors examine differences by country of origin in the human capital, legal status, and social resources of immigrant families and describe their varied living arrangements, focusing on children of Mexican, Southeast Asian, and black Caribbean origin. Problems such as poverty and discrimination may be offset for children to some extent by living, as many do, in a two-parent family. But the strong parental bonds that initially protect them erode as immigrant families spend more time in the United States and are swept up in the same social forces that are increasing single parenthood among American families. The nation, say the authors, should pay special heed to how this aspect of immigrants' Americanization heightens the vulnerability of their children. One risk factor for immigrant families is the migration itself, which sometimes separates parents from their children. Another is the mixed legal status of family members. Parents' unauthorized status can mire children in poverty and unstable living arrangements. Sometimes unauthorized parents are too fearful of deportation even to claim the public benefits for which their children qualify. A risk factor unique to refugees, such as Southeast Asian immigrants, is the death of family members from war or hardship in refugee camps. The authors conclude by discussing how U.S. immigration policies shape family circumstances and suggest ways to alter policies to strengthen immigrant families. Reducing poverty, they say, is essential. The United States has no explicit immigrant integration policy or programs, so policy makers must direct more attention and resources toward immigrant settlement, especially ensuring that children have access to the social safety net.     

Family Structure and School Results: Multivariate Analysis of Answers of Teenage Students in a Romanian City

In this paper we test two alternative explanations for the decline in school performance in the case of children living without one of their natural parents: that a non-intact family structure has a negative effect on educational performance either through the decline in material resources accessible to the student, or due the lack of maternal/paternal control and support. We investigated the relationship of academic achievement with family structure in the case of 2093 students in grades 8–12 learning in schools from Oradea, Romania. Results show that male children tend to protect Romanian families from disruption, which is in line with the theory. However the proportion of teenagers living in non-intact families from the sample is much higher than expected at country-level, probably because of the specific nature of the sample. Bivariate tests show that Grade Point Average, parental control and support and living conditions have all lower averages in non-intact families leaving the causal mechanism of lowered academic performance unclear. Successive tobit regressions show that the poorer results of students living in families in which at least one of the natural parents is missing can be attributed mostly to the more deprived material, cultural and educational living conditions of children in non-intact families. Lower parental control and support is only a covariate of the other dimensions of analysis. Romanian children living in incomplete families and with financial problems need special attention from the school in order to diminish threat towards their academic performances.     

Parental Incarceration and School Readiness: Findings From the 2016 to 2018 National Survey of Children's Health

ObjectiveResearch has documented several collateral consequences of parental incarceration for the development of children. However, there is limited research on how experiencing parental incarceration impacts the school readiness of preschool-aged children. This study examines the relationship between parental incarceration and school readiness among 3- to 5-year-old children in the United States.MethodsThe current study employs data from 2016 to 2018 National Survey of Children's Health. The measure of school readiness is comprised of the following 4 domains: early learning skills, self-regulation, social-emotional development, and physical health & motor development. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine the extent to which children were on-track across these key school readiness domains.ResultsParental incarceration is associated with a reduction in the predicted probability of being on-track across all 4 domains. Furthermore, while only about 1 in 33 children without incarcerated parents will be on-track in none of the domains, approximately 1 in 6 children experiencing parental incarceration will be on-track in none of the domains. Ancillary analyses reveal that these results largely hold across items in each school readiness domain.ConclusionsUsing a novel measure of school readiness, the current study finds parental incarceration is associated with reduced school readiness of preschool-aged children in the United States. Considering the vast benefits of early school readiness for development and academic achievement, our findings suggest a need for interventions that enhance school readiness among children who experience parental incarceration.     

Child poverty. Ways forward for the paediatrician: A comprehensive overview of poverty reduction strategies requiring paediatric support

The harmful effects of child poverty are well documented. Despite this, progress in poverty reduction in Canada has been slow. A significant gap exists between what is known about eradicating poverty and its implementation. Paediatricians can play an important role in bridging this gap by understanding and advancing child poverty reduction. Establishment of a comprehensive national poverty reduction plan is essential to improving progress. The present review identifies the key components of an effective poverty reduction strategy. These elements include effective poverty screening, promoting healthy child development and readiness to learn, ensuring food and housing security, providing extended health care coverage for the uninsured and using place-based solutions and team-level interventions. Specific economic interventions are also reviewed. Addressing the social determinants of health in these ways is crucial to narrowing disparities in wealth and health so that all children in Canada reach their full potential.     

Prematurity and school readiness in a nationally representative sample of Australian children: Does typically occurring preschool moderate the relationship?

Objective

This study aims to examine the relationship between indicators of prematurity and children's cognitive and behavioral school readiness in a nationally representative sample and to investigate whether typically occurring preschool enrollment moderates this relationship, particularly for children from disadvantaged families in Australia.

Methods

The Longitudinal Study of Australian Children is a nationally representative prospective sample of two cohorts of children with sequentially obtained indicators of child health and developmental outcomes. We analyzed information on 8060 children aged 4–5 years who had complete data on birth weight, gestational age, prenatal risks, social factors, and cognitive and behavioral outcomes of school readiness. Multivariate regressions were used to relate three indicators of prematurity (low birth weight, preterm birth, and small for gestational age) to cognitive and behavioral school readiness.

Results

Children born preterm, small for gestational age, or with low birth weight have significantly lower cognitive school readiness after controlling for social factors and prenatal risks. None of the premature indicators were associated with behavioral school readiness. All children benefited from attending preschool. Yet, preschool enrollment did not moderate the relationship between prematurity and school readiness. The only exception is for small for gestational age survivors with low educated mothers. Preschool enrollment was associated with an increase in cognitive school readiness skills.

Conclusions

Prematurity was associated with lower cognitive school readiness skills. Typical occurring preschool did not eliminate this association. Findings suggest that simply expanding the preschool enrollment is inadequate to address the developmental needs of premature children from disadvantaged backgrounds.     

Family processes in pediatric asthma

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Family processes are best conceptualized within an integrated, dynamic biopsychosocial model of pediatric asthma. We reviewed the literature on specific family processes proposed to influence asthma outcomes, the mechanisms of influence, and family-focused interventions to improve asthma control. RECENT FINDINGS: Family characteristics associated with asthma outcomes include caregiver psychological functioning, parenting, and whole-family processes. These characteristics influence asthma outcomes via asthma management behaviors and/or disease-related psychophysiologic pathways. Family-focused interventions designed to promote asthma control include psychoeducation and family therapy, although alternative models have also been proposed. SUMMARY: Despite the increasing evidence that family processes contribute to asthma outcomes, few theory-based family interventions have been developed for children with asthma. Systemic consultation models and biobehavioral family interventions, in conjunction with pediatric care, appear to hold the most promise for helping families of children with poorly controlled asthma.     

Why are children living in poverty getting fatter?

In recent decades, there has been a dramatic increase in unhealthy weight for both children and adults. The Canadian standard of living has changed in favour of more easily prepared, calorie-dense foods and sedentary practices. Many family characteristics have also changed over the past 50 years. More Canadian families are living in disadvantaged situations, forecasting a host of unhealthy behaviours and attitudes in adults. The poor are not only getting poorer, they are also becoming heavier. Children from disadvantaged families seem to be leading the trend in increasing prevalence of unhealthy weight. Because they live in neighbourhoods that are perceived as unsafe, these children are likely spending more time indoors. This is associated with watching more television, which not only displaces other forms of educational and active entertainment but also places them at risk of learning inaccurate information about proper eating. Social science research helps identify factors contributing most to the rise in excess weight within this population, thus providing essential clues for effective approaches to its eradication.     

Children in poverty and the use of early development instrument mapping to improve their worlds

Population data can be used to help physicians better understand child poverty in relation to families, geography and access to community resources. The early development instrument (EDI) is a population m easure of kindergarten children’s early cognitive, social, emotional, language and physical development. Researchers and communities in British Columbia have used EDI and socioeconomic data to examine early child development trends across neighbourhoods, school districts and provincial geographies. It highlights that while vulnerabilities at school entry are more prevalent in poorer communities, they are present in all communities. Mapping EDI data and other information help to identify communities that are more vulnerable and ones that seem to be resilient. Physicians and community partners can identify local needs and interventions that can support parents and communities in promoting healthy development of children before their entry to the first grade.